


Upstanding for the Judge

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Courtroom AU, F/M, Golden Lace, NSFW, Rumbelle Order In The Court, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-04-11
Packaged: 2018-10-17 15:22:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10596774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: Barrister Gold’s gown and wig have gone missing. Lacey knows where they are…Written for Rumbelle Order in the Court, 11/04/2017





	

**Author's Note:**

> [NB: This is set in the UK as I know more about my own legal system!]

 

 

He very nearly didn’t notice. If he hadn’t been paying attention then he could very well have got all the way home before realising anything was amiss. As it was, Gold noticed when he picked up the long garment carrier from where it was hanging up in the changing room and he found it to weigh significantly less than it had done earlier in the day. Barristers’ gowns and wigs were in no way the lightest of things to carry around, and sure enough, when he unzipped the bag, it was empty.

Gold sighed. There was really only one reason why his wig and gown would be missing, and that reason could be summed up in a single word. Lacey. Lacey French had been the bane of Gold’s existence ever since she had first started interning at his chambers. At least, that was what he always told her, because if she got wind of how he actually felt about her then he’d never live it down. Unfortunately, he was sure that Lacey already knew and was just waiting patiently for him to admit it both to her and to himself.

Gold had never been entirely certain what Lacey’s role in his chambers was. She wasn’t in training to be a barrister herself, although Gold had told her on more than one occasion that she’d be very good at it. She was sharp and intelligent and gave as good as she got, and she would have been lethal in a courtroom given the right training. But Lacey, Gold had noticed, had a bolshy, ‘don’t care’ attitude that hid something self-deprecating, and she always laughed off his earnest suggestions, saying that she spent far too much time with a hangover to devote any to serious study. So Gold had stopped trying to persuade her, and she had fallen into the role of his pseudo-assistant, turning up to all his cases like his own little personal cheerleader. Gold pushed the thought of Lacey in a cheerleader’s uniform out of his mind and left the changing room in search of Lacey and his gown.

The first time that they’d had sex had sort of been accidental. They’d just won a case and they’d gone out for a drink to celebrate, and somehow they’d ended up fucking in the alley behind the bar. It had been as hot and quick as their interactions always were, and Gold had been perfectly ready to write it off as a moment of euphoria, prepare himself for a few days of awkward avoidance in the office, and leave it at that. But instead, there had been that time in the storage closet, that time on Ursula’s desk (she’d never found out, at least, Gold didn’t think that she had) and that time actually in his bed. Before they knew it, somehow they had fallen into a friends with benefits arrangement without either of them really realising. He wasn’t sure that they were really friends, though. More like people who tolerated each other and shared an appreciation for good sex and good whiskey.

Until he’d gone and done what Ursula would have described as ‘caught feelings’. When realised just how much he would miss Lacey’s presence in his life if she were ever to leave it - not just her body but her smile and her snark and her snappy comments - Gold realised that he had it bad and he had no idea what to do about it.

Still. Those were thoughts for another time and place, in the comfort of his own home when there was nothing else to be doing. Pushing the complexities of his feelings aside for the moment, Gold decided to focus on the more immediate problem, namely that of his missing wig and gown and where they could have got to. He made his way out into the main court building. The place was winding down to a close for the evening; all the trials in progress had adjourned at five o’clock and the public had long since gone home, leaving the clerks and caretakers preparing for the next day’s work, and perhaps one or two judges in their offices. The courtrooms were likely to be empty, and Gold entered the room that he and Lacey had been ensconced in for the majority of the day. Sure enough, he found wig and gown and Lacey all in the same place. She was sitting in the judge’s chair, and she leaned down over the bench as Gold came up towards her, settling himself against the defence barrister’s desk.

“How did you get up there?” he asked, trying not to let in just how wonderfully arousing the sight of Lacey wearing his legal trappings was.

“Ah ah.” Lacey shook her head. “You must be upstanding for the judge.”

Gold stood up straight and gave Lacey a little bow. The mischievous smile on her face and the fact she obviously had some kind of deliciously devious plan up her sleeve was more more than enough to send the blood running south, and he felt his cock begin to react very favourably to Lacey’s new role. Something was going to be upstanding soon.

“I apologise, Your Honour.”

“Good.” Lacey smirked. “And as for how I got up here, well, I think I’ll save that information for my summing up. We’ve all got to have a few secrets after all. Let’s just say I’m very good at getting into things I shouldn’t.”

Like his heart, old thought with a touch of melancholy. Aloud, he said :”Like the defence counsel’s wig and gown?”

“Oh, are these yours?” Lacey feigned surprise. “I just found them lying around. I suppose I’d better give them back, then.”

She stood and parted the two halves of the gown, letting it drop from her shoulders an inch or so and revealing that she was completely naked beneath it. Gold swallowed, the courtroom wasn’t locked and anyone could come in at any moment, but at the same time, his cock was exceedingly interested in the proceedings and Lacey was looking as glorious as she always did.

“On second thoughts, it suits you,” he finally managed to say.

Lacey quirked an eyebrow and sat back in the judge’s chair, adjusting the wig where it was perched on top of her messy auburn curls, crossing and uncrossing her legs provocatively.

“So, counsel for the defence,” she purred. “Would you care to make your opening statement?”

“I’d prefer to make you come,” Gold countered. Christ, the sight of her was doing something terrible to him; he’d never be able to stand up in court wearing his garb again without thinking of her. Coming to think of it, that was probably her intention all along.

“I like the sound of that,” Lacey said. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the bench. “So, tell the jury how you’d make me come.”

She indicated the empty jury box and Gold turned to it.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would make Her Honour come by laying her down on that bench she’s leaning on and eating her sweet little pussy till she screams and begs for mercy.”

“Well, when you put it like that, Counsel, how can I refuse?” Lacey beckoned him closer with a red-nailed finger, and Gold raised an eyebrow.

“If you’re expecting me to climb up there like you undoubtedly did, you’ll be waiting a long time,” he pointed out.

Lacey pouted. “Such a shame. I was all ready for you to be my knight in shining Armani, coming to rescue the princess from her tower.”

Gold had to snort at the statement. It wouldn’t be impossible for him to get to the judge’s bench, but it would entail leaving the courtroom and coming back in through a different door that might or might not be locked, and he didn’t want to leave Lacey for the fear that when he returned to the room she might have disappeared again. It was a talent she had, one that he had lamentably noticed. She was always dancing away from him wherever she went, as if she could sense him getting closer to her in his feelings and had to put physical distance between them to prevent him getting too close and seeing beneath the facade that she had carefully constructed for herself. He’d glimpsed beneath it a few times before, in those precious moments when she’d curl up in his arms asleep, smiling against his skin, and she looked more peaceful and contented than she ever did when she was awake.

He pushed the thought away and met her challenging stare. With a sigh, Lacey got up from the judge’s chair and pulled herself up onto the bench, swinging her legs over it and scrambling down to the floor like a monkey in barrister’s clothing. She sauntered over to him, dancing her fingers down his tie to his belt and brushing his erection where it was more than apparent.

“Excited, are we, Counsel?”

“I find court cases to be extremely stimulating, Your Honour,” Gold retorted, catching her waist beneath the gown and turning her so that she was leaning against the desk. “But as I recall, I promised that I would make you come. So why don’t you lie back and let me _persuade_ you.”

“I can’t think of anything that would please me more, Mr Gold.” She pushed herself up onto the desk and spread her legs, leaning back on her hands and pushing her pelvis forwards. “What was it that they called Billy Flynn? The silver-tongued prince of the courtroom?”

“Something along those lines,” Gold said, deciding not to admit that he had no idea who Billy Flynn was.

“ _Chicago_ ,” Lacey said, and he was convinced not for the first time that she could actually read his mind. “He’s the lawyer that gets all the ladies who murdered their lovers off.”

“In more ways than one, I presume.”

It was Lacey’s turn to give a snort that covered a giggle, and she nodded. “Probably. But for now, I think we need to put your own silver tongue to the test.”

“With pleasure, Your Honour.”

“I like it when you call me that.” Lacey watched him through eyes narrowed in blissful anticipation as Gold hooked his cane over the edge of the desk and kneeled a little awkwardly. “Do it again.”

“Of course, Your Honour.”

The slight jolt of pain in his leg was worth it for what he was about to do, and it would help to keep him grounded and not disgrace himself in the process of making Lacey fall apart. God, she was lovely; she was always lovely, soft and smooth and pink and smelling sweet and musky. She was already wet for him, he could see her arousal glistening on her labia, and as he pressed his mouth to her slit, her hips bucked up against him, a little groan escaping her lips. Gold smirked, pushing his tongue into her folds and lapping along them thoroughly, licking up her delicious juices and feeling her wriggling beneath him until he finally turned his attention to her clit, circling the tip of his tongue around the swollen nub and making her gasp and scrabble at his hair, nails digging into his scalp. He’d always kept his hair short, for fear of overheating under his wig if nothing else, and he glanced up from between Lacey’s thighs to find that the wig had fallen from her head, her hair coming down and tumbling around her face, the picture of unashamed debauchery. Grinning, he returned to her clit, lapping the flat of his tongue over it as he stroked a finger along her folds and pushed it up inside her, petting at her inner walls. Gold had gone down on her enough times to know what she liked and he curled the finger inside, receiving an incoherent shout and an almost painful scrape of her fingernails against his head, her thighs suddenly clamping around his ears as her ankles crossed behind his neck.

“Yes!” she yelled, the empty courtroom giving her voice a little echo. If anyone was outside, then there would be no doubt as to what was happening in this room, but in that moment, his face buried between the thighs of the most amazing woman in the world, Gold couldn’t care less. He added another finger, sucking on her clit, and Lacey positively screamed with her release, her tight channel fluttering around his fingers.

She was panting hard as he pulled his fingers out and got back onto his feet, and Gold watched her chest heaving as he licked her sweet juices off his hand before reaching out to pinch one of her rosy nipples. Lacey squealed, opening her eyes and glaring at him, and he just smirked back down at her, circling his thumb around her other nipple and watching it pebble and harden under his touch.

“The defence rests, Your Honour,” he said primly.

“That was a most… compelling case,  Mr Gold,” Lacey gasped, levering herself back up onto her elbows where she had slumped down in the rush of her orgasm. “I think the jury will definitely find in your favour.”

“And what kind of reward might I receive for swaying judge and jury in my favour?” Gold asked.

“Well, I’m sure that you can think of something that you want.” Lacey spread her legs a little wider and shifted her weight so that she could reach out towards him. Her fingers went for his belt buckle first, but then at the last moment she grabbed  his tie, yanking on the dark blue silk and pulling him in close for a fervent, bruising kiss, her tongue pushing insistently at his, a kiss that was almost a battleground, and just the way that Gold liked it. The ordinary person on the street looking at Lacey would never choose ‘control freak’ as the first words to describe her, but Gold knew that she hated giving up control over any situation, and even now, when she was all but naked and he was still fully dressed, and she was lying on her back with her legs open and he was looming over her, Lacey was still completely in control and it was all happening on her terms - and Gold wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I’ve judged that your reward can be the judge,” she said breathlessly when she finally pulled away, and Gold nodded.

“As you wish, Your Honour,” he purred. “I trust your superior judgment in this matter.”

“What are waiting for then, Counsel?”

He gave her a little salute, listening her her rich laughter filling the courtroom as he unzipped and freed his eager cock, stroking himself a couple of times before fishing a condom from his wallet and rolling it on. He glanced up at Lacey, bracing his weight against the desk and lining them up.

“Ready?”

“Yes.” Lacey grabbed his shoulders, sinking her fingernails in as he plunged his length into her, rolling her hips to take him in to the hilt, and Gold groaned with pleasure at the sensation, her tight walls clutching at him. Lacey crossed her ankles around his back, her heels digging in and urging him on, his thrusts getting faster and more erratic as the world closed down around them to just the room, just the desk, just the two of them on it; nothing else mattered or held any kind of importance. God, she was heaven and he was ridiculously, stupidly in love with her, something that he shouldn’t have been and didn’t know what he was going to do with. But for now, those worries were in another space and time. For now he was with Lacey, she was with him and wanted him and was holding him tightly and refusing to let go, wanting faster, harder, more, all that Gold was more than willing to give. He’d lost all sense of rhythm now, his pelvis jerking against hers as he felt his climax coming.

“ _Lace!”_

He came hard inside her, fingernails scratching the pristine varnish on the barrister’s desk. That might raise some strange looks from the next people to use this courtroom, but no-one would ever question it. He’d been in this profession long enough to know that. Still coming back down to earth, he felt Lacey unlatch a hand from his shoulder and bring it down between them, snaking her fingers into her slit and pushing herself over that edge again with a couple of sly touches to her clit. She was quieter this time, burying her face in his collar as she moaned with her release, and Gold brought his arms around her back, slipping under the gown to feel her warm bare skin and hold her close.

It was quite possibly the tenderest moment that they’d ever had in all their encounters, and he really didn’t want to let go and break it, but he was beginning to soften inside her and he had to reach down to keep hold of the condom as he pulled out and proceeded to get cleaned up. Lacey unhooked her legs from around him, and let go, leaning back and putting more distance between them again. There was a tension in her posture, as if she was trying to convince herself that the previous moment of togetherness hadn’t happened. Not the sex, but the cuddling that came after. Lacey was not a cuddler; even when they’d shared a bed they hadn’t consciously curled up in each other’s arms afterwards, however much Lacey might gravitate towards him whilst she slept.

“We should probably get out of here,” she said, although there was reluctance in her voice and in her stance as she slipped off the polished wood and walked round to the seat that she usually occupied behind the barrister’s desk, taking up her bag and her clothes. She had never been self-conscious about her body before and indeed hadn’t been a few minutes ago, but Gold noticed that she dressed with her back to him, her movements quick and jerky, and she didn’t meet his eyes as she held out the wig and gown to him and he stowed them back in the garment bag.

“Lacey?” Gold hedged. “Is everything all right?”

“Yep.” The brightness in her voice was feigned, as was the smile she greeted him with when she finally met his gaze. “Come on, we’ve definitely frightened all the clerks now.”

She left the courtroom without another word and Gold raced to catch up to her as quickly as his cane would allow, finally meeting her in the deserted reception area as she stalked through the metal detectors, turned off for the night.  

“Lacey… What’s going on?”

She spun on her heel, and there was something in her face that he’d seen on occasion before when her mask slipped.

“It’s been a long day, Gold, and I just want to go home to a really big glass of shiraz. Let’s not discuss it now.”

Gold nodded. If they didn’t discuss it now, then it would probably never be discussed, and maybe that was for the best. They could go about their lives as if whatever undefined thing that had happened between them had never happened, continue their not-quite-friends with benefits arrangement, and everyone could be perfectly happy with it.

Except neither of them would be, Gold could already tell that, but he wouldn’t force Lacey into something that she didn’t feel ready to commit to.

“All right,” he said levelly. “We’ll say no more about it.” It, the mysterious nebulous thing that he wasn’t even really sure what it was.

Lacey gave a snort of dry laughter. “I don’t even know what ‘it’ is. I just…” She sighed. “Who’d have thought that I’d go and catch feelings?”

Gold reached out, wanting to take her hand but stopping short, unsure if he’d be welcome.

“I don’t know,” he said. “But you can take comfort from the fact you’re not the only one.”

She looked him hard in the eye then, trying to gauge his veracity, but despite spinning the most he could from truth for a living, he knew that he could not be more honest with her in this moment if he tried.

“Please tell me what you’re thinking,” he said. Her mask was in place, her walls all up, and he had no idea what was going through her head.

“I’m thinking that this is probably the worst idea in the world, but that I have a history of bad ideas and I’m still standing, so what’s one more to add to the list? What about you? What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I probably shouldn’t be encouraging you to follow through on ideas that you think are bad, but at the same time I’m more than happy to be considered one of your bad ideas.”

They looked at each other for a long moment, both wanting the other to make the first move.

“Hey! Are you two ever actually going to leave tonight? I have to lock up and go home at some point you know.”

Gold rolled his eyes and glanced back into the foyer to see Leroy, the chief caretaker, leaning on the reception desk jangling his keys in as menacing a manner as keys could be jangled. Lacey just snorted and left the court building, and Gold followed her, but she didn’t go far, just standing on the steps outside and waiting for him as Leroy locked up the building and set the alarms for the night. They were still standing there in silence long after the caretaker had disappeared down the road into the twilight.

“Oh, what the fuck,” Lacey said suddenly, grabbing Gold’s shoulder and pressing her lips against his. She was as forceful as she was with everything else, but this time as her arms came around his neck and she leaned into him, Gold felt a little bit of surrender in her stance, as if she was finally giving in and allowing herself to feel all the things that she had been so strenuously denying to herself, just as he had done.

“What happens now?” she asked. “Let’s face it, we’re two train wrecks who’ve just collided with each other.”

“Well, I propose that we try dragging our wreckage in the same direction together then,” he said. “Perhaps we can find enough working parts within the broken pieces to make something whole.”

“A bit rough around the edges,” Lacey agreed.

“Just like you,” Gold couldn’t resist teasing.

“And you. Just because you wear designer suits  and expensive cologne don’t think I can’t see the Glasgow shipbuilder’s son lurking beneath the surface sometimes.” She paused. “I’m a terrible girlfriend,” she warned. “I don’t do cutesy holding hands or romantic gestures. I never remember birthdays or anniversaries, and I can’t cook to save my life.”

“I can’t remember the last time I did cutesy handholding or romantic gestures,” Gold said lightly. “But I do have a good memory and I can cook.”

“Great, I’m starving,” Lacey said, and they both laughed. The ease was coming back to them now. They’d decided to make a go of this thing that they had fallen into by accident, and whilst it might all come crashing down around their ears in a most spectacular fashion, there was a little hope in there that they could maybe make something of it.

Gold crossed the carpark to his car and looked back at Lacey over his shoulder.

“Coming?” he asked. “Of course, if you don’t want king prawn stir fry you’re welcome to go home.”

Lacey laughed and came over, getting in the passenger side.

“Look at us, all domesticated already,” she said.

“Nothing wrong with domestication,” Gold replied. “And I can assure you that what I have planned for _after_ the king prawn stir fry is in no way domesticated.”

“Oh good. I’d hate for us to become boring and predictable having only been dating for ten minutes.”

“My dear Lacey, you could never be boring and predictable if you tried.”

They both laughed, and as the car crept away from the court building, Gold got the feeling that they were going to be ok.


End file.
